


(T)Wins and Losses

by LionessoftheRock



Category: Glee
Genre: Brother/Sister Incest, Twincest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-09
Updated: 2015-08-09
Packaged: 2018-04-13 21:09:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4537461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LionessoftheRock/pseuds/LionessoftheRock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were never keeping score.<br/>...Yes, they were.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Because they need more fic. AU of 6x09 Child Star.

Mason doesn’t know exactly what attracts him to Jane. But she’s nice and extremely talented, and they sound _amazing_ together, so he decides to go for it.

It’s funny, though. Despite being one of the most popular people in school, in a position of power most people his age would _kill_ for, he doesn’t have all that much experience with women.

Actually, he has virtually no experience at all.

Sure, he’s gone on a couple dates, but he’s never had a serious girlfriend. It just never seemed like something he’d want. He had enough in his life: performing, cheer, his family. He didn’t _need_ some sort of ridiculous romantic entanglement.

For a while, he thought (and, actually, was completely terrified) that he might be gay. But he tried going on “not-dates” with other guys, too. And that interested him even less than the few women who had managed to, however temporarily, drag him away from his busy life.

Lately, Madison has been teasing him non-stop about his lack of a love life, and, as much as he loves his sister, he doesn’t think he can stand her attempts at embarrassing him any longer. Besides, he’d made a promise to himself that he wouldn’t just be that weird guy who was best friends with his sister. He was determined to “put himself out there,” as they said, a bit more.

So, when he sees Jane in the hall, hauling a mountain of books to her next class, he runs up to her and offers to carry them for her (I’m an athlete, remember?).

And when she says, “Thank you,” he immediately responds with, “Well, you can make it up to me by going to dinner with me on Saturday,” which he thinks is _very_ smooth, but, judging by the way she looks at him, may actually not be. Luckily, after a few seconds of mildly-shocked silence, she laughs and says she’d love to.

 _Score one for Mason McCarthy_.

* * *

 

As Madison grudgingly makes her way to History (she’s _never_ understand why Mason loved this damned subject so much), she feels a slight vibration in her right pocket. When she sees that it’s a text from her twin, she can’t help but grin from ear to ear. Conversations with Mason never failed to make her happy. He _had_ been her closest friend since infancy, after all.

When she opens it, all it says is, “You can stop teasing me about my lack of a love life, now. :)” She feels a grin playing at the corners of her mouth.

 _Finally. It’s about time_.

Her brother deserved someone. He was pretty great. And the fact that some other girl had realized that was pretty great, too.

She always wondered why he never bothered with girls much. She knew him well enough to know it wasn’t because he was gay. And she didn’t think he was asexual, either. (Asexual people didn’t make the kinds of comments he made about Sutton Foster.) But, thinking back on it, she realized that she’d never had much of a romantic life, either. Sure, lots of guys had asked her out, but most of them had only wanted her for her status or because they thought she was hot. And, to be completely honest, she’s never really seen the big deal about relationships. She had enough things to worry about.

Like her History test that started in five minutes.

But, deep curiosity caused her to text Mason back, “Oh, really? Do I know her? Can I stalk her on Facebook? Or are you just making this up so I’ll shut up? ;)”

Almost immediately, he sends back, “Jane.”

Somehow, the thought of her brother being successful in love wasn’t as much of a cause to rejoice as she originally thought...

She supposed she didn’t really know Jane all that well. She had no reason to distrust the girl. But, somehow, she did.

As upbeat and all-loving as her brother seemed, she knew there was a distinctive sense of fragility buried somewhere in there.

Her brother didn’t deserve to have his heart broken. And maybe Jane seemed nice, but, the fact of the matter was that neither of them knew her well enough to know whether or not she’d treat her brother the way he deserved to be treated in a relationship. Or how she’d fit in with their family, or how she’d mesh with Madison, because if she didn’t have much in common with Madison, she knew that’d drive a wedge between all three of them, and that was the last thing she wanted.

But she resolved to stay positive and give her the benefit of the doubt, so she replies, “Cool!” before stepping into her test in Doomsday 101.

* * *

 

Saturday rolls around, and Jane texts Mason saying she has a stomach bug and probably shouldn’t be around people right now.

Mason feels a little upset, but it’s not like it’s devastating or anything. He really doesn’t know her that well, yet. And it’s not like she’s ditching him. She sent him a Snapchat. She didn’t look so great.

Madison, meanwhile, asks him why he’s still at home when he should be out having wild, kinky sex with his new girlfriend (it’s not a weird comment-they’ve always been close like that), and he replies, “She’s not my girlfriend, yet. And shut up.”

Madison turns to go to the kitchen, presumably to make herself a turkey sandwich, when she suddenly turns around and says, “This means we can finally catch up on _Mad Men_!!”

 _Gee, way to feel bad for him missing a date with the most promising girl in years_.

But if she thinks her eagerness to take advantage of his datelessness is crossing the line, she doesn’t show it.

* * *

 

They’re seated on the couch, and they’ve been at this marathon for about ten hours.

Madison can’t help but feel a _little bit_ happy that Jane had had to cancel her date with Mason. She’d been dying to catch up on her favorite show for _ages_ , and, since it was Mason’s favorite show, too, she wouldn’t _dream_ of watching the latest episodes without him.

Somehow, she couldn’t imagine Jane being as into this as they were. They’d always had TV shows that they’d “adopted.” Programs that they both found interesting that they always watched with each other and only each other. It was _their_ thing.

Madison couldn’t help wondering if _their_ thing would have to include Jane, now, if her relationship with Mason panned out. Or if _their_ thing would become _Mason and Jane’s_ thing.

Madison didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but she saw how other people got when they were in relationships. Ever since Ms. Berry and Coach Evans had been (...seeing each other? she wasn’t really sure), they’d been entirely wrapped up in themselves. Same with Mr. Hummel and the coach of the Dalton Academy Warblers. And almost every other acquaintance she’d met had relegated her to third-wheel status, if that, once he or she started dating someone. It wasn’t like she’d had _all_ that much experience, but she figured that was just what happened when people started getting into relationships.

But she was particularly attached to _Mad Men_ , so she was, at the very least, pleased that she could finish _this_ show up with her brother before he potentially abandoned her for a girl neither of them knew very well.

So, she leans her head on his shoulder and tries to ignore the uncomfortable feeling in her stomach.

* * *

 

Monday rolls around, and Jane has recovered. Not enough to be completely her usual self, but enough to be at school and talk to Mason in coherent sentences, which is good enough for him.

They both arrive early to Glee club, and she apologizes for missing their date, and that, if he wanted, Breadstix would be on her, Friday night as a way to make up for it.

Mason manages to somehow root through the pleasant fog in his brain to reply shyly, “I like a girl who can take matters into her own hands.” Jane looks down in a manner that might be described as adorable, subtly basking in the glow of his compliment.

 _Score two for Mason_.

Jane glances behind him and nods a greeting, and, as he turns to see who it is, he spots Madison standing in the doorway. All of a sudden, he feels unbearably awkward. Their whole lives, it had pretty much been the two of them, and now, he has something with Jane that was completely separate from his relationship with his twin.

“-take charge all the time. You’re going to have to put in some sort of responsibility if you want this relationship to work.”

 _...Aaaannnd, he’d just missed what she was saying because he was thinking about_ _something else entirely._

_Back to score one for Mason_

He can infer from context, though, and he’s about to retort how this whole date was his idea anyway and how he’s plenty responsible, especially where an exceptionally pretty and talented girl is concerned, but he feels Madison’s eyes on the back of his head, and he just, somehow, _can’t_. He feels like he can’t share that intimate of a moment, even if it’s just harmless flirting, with someone else in front of his sister. He feels almost like his privacy is being invaded, even though she’s standing at the door about eight feet behind him, relatively removed from the situation in question. And sharing something so personal with someone else in front of his best friend just seems... _wrong_.

So he stutters, leaving Jane to smirk at him, thinking she’s gotten the upper hand in this round, before she steps outside to take a drink of water. 

 _Make that score one-half for Mason_.

He locks eyes with Madison and feels some sort of weird, nervous feeling begin to curl somewhere deep in his stomach.

“Sorry,” she murmurs, although she doesn’t look as sorry as he expects her to be.

“That’s all right. There was no way you knew she’d be here.”

“Yeah...So, Friday? Does this mean I’ll have to find something to do all by myself, then?” She gave him a teasing smile.

And suddenly, he felt extremely guilty. The thought of her being alone on a weekend, especially one where they were fortunate enough _not_ to have cheer practice beforehand-Sue was leaving for some spa vacation she had given herself as a three-quarters-birthday present (not birthday, or half-birthday, three-quarters-birthday)- made him feel inexplicably upset. He didn’t get it. Like, at all. She didn’t _look_ upset. And it was perfectly within his right to go on _one date_.

But he finds himself apologizing profusely, and Madison smiles warmly and says, though she’s touched he’s thinking of her, it’s one date, before giving him a quick squeeze of his hand and excusing herself to go to the bathroom.

 _Score one for Madison_.

* * *

 

God, she’s embarrassed. Interrupting a moment between her brother and Jane. And she supposed she should have left, but, for some reason, she stayed completely glued to her spot by the door, unable to look away.

And when Jane mentions “Friday,” she tries not to dwell on the fact that that was when she’d been planning on teaching Mason how to bake chocolate croissants (hey, the ones at the local bakery were expensive!!).

...But she gets mad, anyway. At least, internally. It’s not like there were that many people that she was truly close to. It’s not like she’d ever really _wanted_ to be close to anyone. She’d always had Mason. And it’s not like she had anything else to do.

But, ever the positive McCarthy twin, she finds herself automatically telling him it’s fine, not finding it in her to _actually_ get mad at him.

She just decides she’ll invite Spencer over to watch ESPN. The guy _could_ use some friends.

* * *

 

The next day, Madison spies Mason and Jane walking in together, laughing over some likely cheesy joke that they both found funny.

That hurt a little.

Okay, a lot. How many more private jokes was he going to have with Jane? Just how much of his life wouldn’t include her anymore if and when they started going out?

She doesn’t know why she feels the need to loudly broadcast to Spencer that she wants to hang out with him on Friday (“because, after all, it’s not like anyone else is going to be around”). Spencer looks kind of confused, but seeing as she offered to buy hot wings and he never really _could_ resist anything sports related, he agrees to come over.

 _If Mason wants to make everything about Jane, then I’m just going to have to prove that I can have fun without him_.

Her twin blanches a little bit, looking a bit guilty.

_That’s right. I can have a life, too._

Maybe she’s being a bit too harsh. But she might be losing the person she loves more than anyone else in the world to a girl who might not even be worth his time. She’s allowed to make him feel a little guilty about that.

And judging by the way he avoids looking at her for the rest of rehearsal, she obviously did just that.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

Friday comes and Spencer shows up at six-thirty. Mason doesn’t know why Madison had told him to come over before _he_ was supposed to leave for his date with Jane, but he supposed it’s her way of rubbing it in that he was leaving her to fend for herself.

He did feel a bit guilty about that. Not to mention, he didn’t really trust Spencer. He didn’t seem like the nicest or most positive of people. Sure, he’s saved them by agreeing to up their number of competitors, but he had a lot to prove before Mason truly considered him a teammate.

But, Spencer was gay, so at least Mason didn’t have to worry about him making a move on his sister. And that made him breathe a sigh of relief.

_NO ONE touched his sister. Not without going through him._

But the two of them camp out on the couch, Madison places an order for hot wings, and they completely ignore him, too engrossed in whatever game is playing on ESPN.

Just as well, he should probably make himself look presentable.

It’s funny. He feels like he should be a little more nervous about a first date. Especially with someone that he has such good musical chemistry with. But, well, it’s pretty low- stakes at this point. It’s not like he’s head over heels for her. And it’s not like he was in danger of wrecking a particularly close friendship if the date goes badly. It’s not like she’s Madison.

 _Not that I’m into Madison, but_ , _oh, you know what I mean_.

So he goes to freshen up and fix his hair.

As Mason leaves, he sees Madison avidly watching the TV. He says goodbye, and, without looking up, she says, “Yeah, have fun.”

Mason moves to put his arm around Jane’s shoulder, and Madison’s eyes snap up and she says, “Remember, don’t have sex. If you do, you’ll get chlamydia. And you’ll die.”

Jane starts laughing, and, even though Mason knows she’s just quoting _Mean Girls_ , he feels his face flush red and settles for grabbing his keys and muttering under his breath that they should get going.

_Score two for Madison._

* * *

Madison tries not to think about how long her brother has been gone. Dinner doesn’t normally take more than about an hour, right? And the restaurant is about seven minutes away, so that’s an hour and fourteen minutes, and it’s been an hour forty, and oh, my _GOD_ , what could they possibly be doing?

Spencer’s cool, she supposes. Not really one for engaging conversation, unless it’s to rant about a terrible execution of a play or a defense of the ref’s controversial call, or to talk about how talented and attractive player number seven is. But it’s nice to have someone here with her.

And when she mentions playing Quelf, Spencer just looks at her like she’s insane and goes back to watching the game.

_Mason loves Quelf._

“Ugh, where ARE they?!”

“Chill, they haven’t been gone that long. They probably stopped to get ice cream or something.”

“But what if something’s happened?” She stops and pauses. “Oh, God, what if they’re...” she trails off, unable to voice her concerns.

Spencer merely looks at her and says, “Well, if they’re having sex, they might be at it a while. Mason seems like a guy who can go a long while.”

“And how would you know that?” He smirks, “I can just tell.”

She rolls her eyes. “I just, he didn’t take any condoms with him, what if he’s not being safe?”

“You _are_ aware there is a convenience store literally two blocks from where you live. It’s not that hard to find condoms.”

“I—“

“Why do you care so much about your brother’s sex life, anyway?” He eyes her suspiciously. “Are you guys...”

“What?! NO!!!”

“Just checking.”

“You’re disgusting.”

 “Hey, it’s Kitty’s fault for starting it.”

She leaves to get up.

“Where are you going? You’re about to miss the final play.”

“I’m going to go call him.”

“Please stop acting like his mom. It’s a little weird.”

She just grabs her phone and walks to her bedroom, trying to ignore how much deeper she’s digging herself into this hole of stupidity she accidentally fell into.

* * *

 “I didn’t know moonlit strolls were your thing,” Jane remarks.

“I’m full of surprises.” 

“And I hope to get a chance to see more of them.”

 “Wow, you really like me that much, huh?”

 “No, I just think you’re amusing. I want to keep you around for personal entertainment.”

He chuckles.

_This is nice._

She grabs for his hand, when suddenly, his phone goes off. It’s Madison’s ringtone.

“Sorry!! I have to take this.” _Maybe Sue had cancelled her trip and scheduled an emergency practice he didn’t know about. Maybe the news about the job he’d applied for had finally come through...Or maybe Madison was in trouble. She must be in trouble. He knew it wasn’t a good idea to leave her alone with Spencer._

“What’s wrong?!”

“Nothing, yeesh. Just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

“Um...yeah...I told you I’d probably be back around, like, ten. It’s barely nine-fifteen.”

“I just...dinner doesn’t normally take this long.”

“Yeah, we’re going for a walk. I showed her the little hidden tree path behind the auto repair shop.”

“...”

“Madison?”

“...”

“Madison, what’s wrong?”

“...”

“ _Madison!”_

“That was _our_ thing!!”

“Madison, the path belongs to the public.”

“Yeah, but no one else knows about it.”

All of a sudden, Mason felt that sense of embarrassment that seemed to be growing steadily ever since he decided to pursue Jane.

And he thought of his twin, stuck at home, needlessly worrying about him because that’s what she _does_ , and stuck with _Spencer_ of all people.

Speaking of which, what were _they_ doing? He doubted that Madison could stay engrossed in sports for that long. When it came to anything athletic other than cheer or, for some reason, rugby, she had the attention span of a puppy dog. She had to take frequent breaks from whatever game it was she was watching in order to keep herself interested. So what were they doing?

He wondered if Spencer liked Quelf. Or maybe they were watching a movie, sprawled on the couch, finishing up the last of the food they’d ordered. Or...wait, they still had two episodes of _Mad Men_ left. What if she was watching them with Spencer without _him_?!

The thought filled him with rage. That was between the two of _them_. And now he’s probably made things worse by taking Jane to this stupid secret footpath they’d found when they were kids.

“I’m sorry, sis. Please don’t hate me.”

There is a brief silence on the other end of the line before she replies softly, “Just, don’t do anything like that again, okay?”

“Madison, I-“

“ _Mason_...”

“Okay!! I won’t. I promise.”

She exhales, “Thank you. Enjoy your evening.”

“I will.” They both hang up at exactly the same time.

“Everything okay?” Jane asks.

“Yeah, I mean, I think so...” He twines his hand with hers and says, “Come on, let’s go through the park.”

“But it’s so nice here.”

 “Yeah, but I like the park better.”

She gives him a strange look, but complies with an, “Okay.”

_Madison: 3. Mason: 0._

This was not looking promising.

* * *

 At 10:13, Madison finally hears the hum of her twin’s car in the driveway. The game had finished a few minutes ago and Spencer had just left to go home. She thanked him for hanging out with her, and he just shrugged and said he was always up for free hot wings.

She rushes to her bedroom and throws open the window to call out a greeting. She sees Mason leading Jane to the front door, their hands linked together, and her voice stalls in her throat.

She hears boisterous laughter, and something that sounds suspiciously like, “You can come in for a few minutes, if you want.”

_Hasn’t this girl already taken up enough of her brother’s time? And, by extension his time with **her**? For God’s sake, they go to school together!! They see each other every day! And they’ve been on one date, and he’s trying to get her to come inside **their** house??!!_

“Hey, Mason!! Mom called while you were gone and said she and dad are coming back from that conference early tomorrow, and that she’d like us to meet for breakfast, so, if you want to get a full night’s rest, you’d better start now.”

Her mom didn’t actually call, but she’d be damned if she had to spend one more minute playing second-fiddle to some chick her brother barely knew.

She was good at acting. She could easily make up some lie about their flight getting changed in the morning.

* * *

 Luckily, Mason believes her story that their parents’ flight got cancelled, and that they’re coming back that evening like they originally planned.

However, he spends all day texting Jane, declining even to play Quelf, or catch up on _Mad Men,_ and, eventually, Madison has had enough. She is _not_ going to let her brother and closest friend blow her off. Especially when Jane wasn’t even _here_.

So she steals his phone and they play a game of cat-and-mouse for about twenty minutes before she tells him that she’s lonely and she sat through a _whole entire_ sports game with _Spencer_ , and he can take a break from his “future wife” to spend time with his own _sister_.

He looks appropriately chastised, nods his head wearily, and asks if she wants to watch the last of _Mad Men_.

Madison happily consents and, as they fall into their old familiar TV-watching routine, with Mason lazily draping his arm around her and folding her into his side, she thinks that maybe she doesn’t have to worry about Jane after all.

* * *

 On Sunday, Mason completely forgets about contacting Jane. Their parents are back, and they have a family Quelf tournament. And then Madison _begs_ him for help with her history homework, and how could he say no to a sibling so obviously in need?

And if Madison happens to smirk to herself that Mason doesn’t reach for his phone once, focusing all of his attention on her, Mason doesn’t notice it.

When he comes to school on Monday, he finally realizes that that might have come across as a bit of a douche-y move, and apologizes to Jane, who tells him he’s more than allowed to have his own life. Not to mention that he probably had to deal with his parents’ return, which is always a little hectic.

He thanks her for being understanding.

He’s about to say something about how nice her hair looks today when Madison comes through the door, talking to Roderick.

“Yeah, my headphones busted last night. I need a new pair.”

“Well, mine have been going strong for years. They may be a bit cumbersome, but they’re reliable.”

“How much are they?”

 “About a hundred and twenty bucks.”

 “A hundred and twenty?”

 “I know it sounds like a lot, but you’ll save money in the long run.”

“Okay. I’ll check them out. Where can I get a pair?”

“They’re kind of hard to find-I had to order mine from a catalog. I’ll bring you a copy of it tomorrow.”

“Cool. Thanks!!”

It’s completely understandable that she’d ask Roderick for help in picking headphones. After all, he was kind of the expert.

But she didn’t mention anything about headphones this morning. And he’d helped her with her homework until they both decided to go to bed. Since when had she started staying up late without him?

They told each other _everything_. And the fact that there might have been who-knows-how- much of her life that she hadn’t thought to share with him made him feel a bit saddened.

He catches his sister’s eye and then quickly looks away.

 _Had he done something? She’d been acting weird ever since he’d started this whole thing with Jane_. _Did she not like her? Oh, God. If his sister-slash-best friend didn’t like his potential girlfriend **then** what was he supposed to do? He’d have to take Madison’s side. That’s what twins did, right? That’s what family did. And he couldn’t risk losing the person he was closest to. He didn’t know what he’d do_.

He decides he’ll just have to talk to her about it later.

* * *

 

Ms. Berry outlines their next assignment: Sinatra. Going back to the classics. She says it’ll be good for them.

Madison is excited. She can already think of a dozen songs she can perform with Mason.

So when Ms. Berry asks them to pair up and Mason catches Jane’s eye and starts saying, “Do you want-“ Madison has had enough.

She has no one else she feels nearly as comfortable singing with. And she’s Mason’s twin. His best friend. She is _not_ about to be replaced.

So, she practically screams at Ms. Berry, “Mason and I call ‘Come Fly with Me!’ ” The glare Mason shoots her is priceless. And it feels oddly satisfying.  

 _Well, score another one for Madison_.

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

Really?!

He'd felt Madison looking right at him when he had approached Jane. She _had_ to have known that he wanted to do a duet with his potential romantic interest.

They had sung together all the time since they were four years old. Didn’t he deserve an opportunity to sing with someone else? Someone he had already proven he had great musical chemistry with?

Madison _had_ to have cut in on purpose.

What was her problem?

Was he not allowed to have his own life? What did she have against Jane?

So, as they look over music that evening, he asks Madison exactly that.

She studies him critically. “Nothing, she’s nice. She seems cool,” she replies, a tone a bit too measured to be believable.

“Then why have you been so weird about it lately?”

“Oh, I’ve just had a lot of really stressful homework this week,” she says, without missing a beat.

A man of lesser faith would almost think she planned that response.

But Mason, being the optimistic guy that he is, takes her word for it and leaves the subject.

He’s always loved older music. And so has Madison. When he was doing a mash-up with Jane, she couldn’t really get into it.

... _Hmmm...maybe Madison **is** right. Maybe it’s better if we sing this together_.

And, as they continue to learn the song, he realizes she is, in fact, right. Madison has an ear for harmony that’s unlike anything he’s ever seen. He’d had to really work with Jane, who couldn’t just pick it up naturally. Which was a bit of a problem, because _he_ wasn’t naturally the best at it, either. But, somehow, he was so in sync with Madison when they sang that he always knew where she was going and all of the potential pitfalls didn’t seem so dangerous.

He guessed that’s what came from spending most of your life performing together.

And as he sees the smile on Madison’s face, he can’t really remember why he wanted to perform with Jane in the first place.

* * *

 They perform the song on Friday, to glowing reviews from their teachers and their peers, complete with a standing ovation (even from Spencer).

Mason comes up to Jane to ask her what she thought, and she replies that if he really wants to know, he’ll have to take her out again tomorrow, when Madison walks by him and says, “Sorry, Jane, you’ll have to take a rain check. I already made reservations for us to go see a screening of this new art film that’s playing downtown.”

Mason eyes her skeptically. “You hate art films.”

“I’m trying to broaden my horizons. It’s been a while since I’ve seen one. I thought I’d give them a fair chance.”

“And you thought not to tell me about this until now because...”

“I wanted to surprise you. You’ve always said you were curious as to _why_ I hated them so much because they never bothered you. I figured I’d try to figure that out myself.”

“Oh. Well, sorry, Jane, looks like we’ll have to do another night.”

“That’s fine. You guys enjoy yourselves.”

Madison didn’t _actually_ have reservations. But there _was_ an art film playing downtown. And she could very easily make them...

She was not taking another weekend of being ignored.

* * *

 They sit down in the tiny viewing room, and the first thing Madison says is, “Give me your phone.” It is not a request.

“...Okay...why?”

“I know you’re going to spend the whole film flirting with Jane via text if I don’t take it away from you. I’d rather not be distracted, and, believe it or not, I’d actually _like_ to spend time with you.”

_He most certainly was **not** going to spend the whole film texting Jane. _

“I wouldn’t-”

 “Just stop.” 

_Gee, **someone** was on edge today..._

He shoots her an, admittedly, rather juvenile look and makes a habit of taking out his phone and putting it in his other pocket, the one furthest away from her.

“MASON MCCARTHY, YOU GIVE ME YOUR PHONE RIGHT NOW!”

Most of the people in the theater were looking at them and Mason was actually slightly terrified. He awkwardly takes his phone back out of his pocket and hands it to her.

She gives him a saccharine smile and gingerly places the phone in her purse.

Throughout the film, Madison keeps looking at him, almost as if making sure he’s still there. For the most part, he keeps his eyes on the screen, not in the least bit certain what it is she expects him to do.

Funny, for two people so often in sync.

But, at some point, there’s a scene with spiders. He _hates_ spiders. He is deathly afraid of spiders. He’s pretty sure it could be classified as an actual psychological phobia. And, currently, there are hundreds of them plastered across the screen that’s about ten feet away from him.

Against his will, he starts shaking. Hardly noticeable to anyone looking at him, but enough to make him feel like his whole body is being given an electric shock repeatedly.

And, suddenly, he feels a slight pressure on his hands, familiar fingers interlacing with his. Madison’s expression is genuinely horrified. (Obviously, she did not realize that this was part of the film she had made reservations for.) And her eyes are still glued on the screen because she doesn’t even need to look at him to know he’s feeling panicked. Actually, he never needed to explicitly _say_ he has a fear of spiders at all. It was just something Madison noticed. And it was something that only Madison _would_ know because, honestly, they’re just relatively tiny bugs that scurry around, and it’s kind of embarrassing.

But, despite the fact that his own sister is currently holding his hand in public to prevent him from having a breakdown, he doesn’t feel embarrassed at all.

* * *

 Madison walks out feeling rather pleased with herself. All in all, this was a fairly successful day (although she didn’t know about or appreciate the whole scene with the spiders-poor Mason.)

She gives him his phone back and thanks him for what was (mostly) a very pleasant experience.

As expected, the first thing he does is call Jane.

_Mason: 1. Madison: 2._

He tells her all about the film (minus the deal with the spiders) and says he’s looking forward to seeing her on Monday.

She faintly hears Jane ask what’s so special about Monday.

Mason replies that he _could_ make up a clever lie in order to cover up that he just wants to be around her, but he knows she’d see right through it, which is one of the reasons he likes her.

The first thing Madison thinks is, _Seeing through his lies was always **my** job._

And she finds herself getting really angry again. And she hates feeling angry. She’s an optimist!! Anger is a mostly foreign emotion to her. And right now, she is feeling a _lot_ of it.

How _dare_ this girl come into her brother’s life and wreck the only truly fulfilling friendship she had?

All she can think of is that she needs to get her brother off the phone. So she just barks, “Mason!” and gives him a withering look.

He feebly tells Jane he has to leave and mutters a quick good-bye before hanging up and shoving his phone back in his pocket.

“Chinese?” Madison asks.

And she can tell from the expression on Mason’s face-because he’d never admit she was right out loud-that she completely read his mind.

* * *

 On Sunday evening, Mason finds himself in need of a pencil. He had a terrible habit of losing them. Or letting other people borrow them and then never giving them back. But Madison-organized, responsible Madison-should definitely have some in her room. And since they were so close in every other aspect of their lives, he knew she would be okay with him borrowing one from her ( _actual_ borrowing, with intent to return).

He knew she kept them in a plain red pencil case. But the problem was that she was currently in the midst of doing her laundry-which meant there were clothes _everywhere_. As much as he wasn’t keen on digging through the seemingly random (although he’s sure she has _some_ system of organization that’s far beyond his comprehension) piles of soiled clothes, covered with sweat and dirt and general germs, he was _extremely_ keen on finding a pencil to finish his algebra homework.

So he roots around her room-they have a pretty open-door policy when it comes to needing to borrow things-and does not find a red pencil case.

...But he _does_ find a box of condoms.

He looks at it quizzically. What could she _possibly_ need these for? Obviously she had someone with whom she was hoping to use them, but he hadn’t noticed her express an interest in anyone.

And who _was_ this guy, anyway? What gave him the right to screw around with his sister without seeking _his_ approval first?

And why wasn’t Madison telling him?!

...Not that he was particularly interested to know the details about Madison’s sex life. (Ew.) But if she was prepared to take this step with someone, there must be a guy that she had at least some relative degree of _interest_ in...and normally, when she had a crush, she told him.

He was actually _really_ angry about this. She was his best friend!!! SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO TELL HIM WHAT WAS GOING ON IN HER LIFE!!!

_Deep breaths, Mason, deep breaths._

The only straight guy he could think of that Madison was around on a regular basis was Roderick. And he knew Madison well enough to know he was _so_ not her type.

And, for goodness sake, _he_ had told her the moment he’d started pursuing Jane!!

The only thing he could think of was that she was so embarrassed to be with this guy that she never acknowledged him in public. But when would she have had the time to meet up with him? She was a pretty busy girl; Mason knew her schedule just as well as he knew his own.

Besides, Madison knew she had nothing to be ashamed of. From the hiding from thunderstorms even after they could realistically be called “small children” to her mystifying obsession with the Gossip Girl books, Mason never judged her. She always came to him about everything.

So why would she feel embarrassed about some mere guy? If there even _was_ a guy. Unless... ...Maybe it wasn’t a guyOHMYGODHISSISTERISALESBIAN.

Come to think of it, she never really had that much of an active dating life... But, then again, neither had he... But, still!! It was the only logical explanation. He stared quizzically at the box of condoms again.

_So who could this girl be?_

Ms. Berry? No, she would never be stupid enough to fall for her _teacher_.

Kitty? They were both cheerleaders, but...no, too much of a cynic. Not to mention the uncomfortable incest jokes she was always making...He doubted Madison would be able to easily forgive that.

Anyone else on the cheer squad? It would have to be, because the only other girl she was around on a regular basis was...

...Jane. 

That was totally it.

 Everything made _sense_ now.  _That’s_ why his sister had been acting so weird about his relationship with Jane, lately.

She was trying to pursue Jane as well. And from the presence of the condoms, it looked like she’d been given some reason to assume that Jane reciprocated.

She was _jealous_.

Of course!!

Ugh, maybe she thought she was doing the right thing by not telling him how awkward the situation really was, but she _really_ should have just told him.

He also needed to find out if Jane was actually into his sister instead of him. He decides he’ll ask her on Monday.

* * *

 “Hey, so I have a question.”

“Well, you certainly don’t waste any time. Shoot.”

“Are you into my sister?”

The look she gives him is halfway between flabbergasted and wow-that’s-the-most- ridiculous-thing-I’ve-ever-heard-you’re-so-funny.

“Uh...no.”

 “...O-kay...”

 “No offense, but why would you ask such an insane question?”

“My sister has...hinted that she’s interested in someone, and, judging by the box of condoms I accidentally found in her room, I think that person reciprocates. Or, at least, Madison thinks they do.”

“And you automatically assumed this person was me because...?”

 “Well, she’s been really weird and touchy about our relationship lately. I figured there had to be a reason.”

“I hate to be _that_ person, but could she just be on her period?”

“No, her next cycle’s not due for another two weeks.”

“...I’m not even going to ask _why_ you know that.” 

“It’s helpful to know!”

She raises her eyebrow questioningly, as if hoping to...well, eyebrow him into conceding, he supposes.

“Well, if she’s interested in me, I’ve done absolutely nothing to suggest that I’m interested back. If she’s convinced I’m into her, that’s an _extreme_ personal misunderstanding on her part.”

“I’ll ask her. The last thing I want is for her to get between us.”  Jane merely smiles at him and squeezes his hand before taking her seat. The first thing that Mason thinks is that her hands aren’t nearly as soft as Madison’s, and Jane’s fingers don’t fit nearly as well into his.

* * *

 When Madison gets home, Mason practically ambushes her (well, as much as you can ambush someone if you’re just one person).

“I need to talk to you.”

“Okay...”

“Do you like Jane?”

“I mean, I don’t know her _all_ that well, but she seems cool, I guess...” It was clear Madison did _not_ want to be having this conversation.

“No, I mean...do you _like_ her?” Madison looked at him like he’d just asked her to write out the name of every war that hadtaken place in Earth’s history in chronological order. Which, considering her hatred of history would probably be the absolute worst thing in the world. “No. I...why?”

“Well, I was looking for a pencil in your room because I ran out, and I accidentally found a box of condoms...”

Madison starts laughing, her eyes closing and her head tilting back in a way that _almost_ makes Mason forget why he cornered her in the first place. “Those aren’t for _me_!!”

“Then who-”

“Alex will _not_ shut up about this one guy she thinks is _so hot_ on the baseball team. All of us just don’t want to hear it anymore. So I thought I’d buy her some condoms to get the point across. Besides, it’s not like she’s responsible enough to buy them herself.”

Mason had to concede that point. Their fellow cheer-mate was _not_ the most on top of things. And she talked about boys _far_ more than was probably emotionally healthy."Besides, In case you hadn't noticed, those are _male_ condoms. Why would two women need those?"

_Well, he **hadn't** noticed. He'd been too preoccupied with the thought that his sister might actually be interested in someone to bother thinking this whole thing through._

“Well, all right then.”

“So, why did you think it was _Jane_? Do I really give off that much of an I-like-women vibe?”

“You’ve just been so...upset...with us going out. I know you mentioned that you’d had a stressful week, but it’s been an ongoing thing. You just seem paranoid whenever she’s even brought up, and especially if I have any kind of interaction with her.”

“Honestly, it’s fine.”

“No, Madison, it’s not. If you think there’s some reason why I shouldn’t be going out with Jane, I want you to tell me! I thought that’s what we did!”

She looks up at him and takes a deep breath before whispering, “I just don’t want to be replaced.”

_...Okay, he was **not** expecting that to be the response._

That was ridiculous!! Replace Madison-as _if_!!

“I just...kind of feel like you’ve been ignoring me and don’t really want to be around meanymore, since you have Jane.”

“You’re my best friend, okay? I love you. And I will never, _ever_ let anyone take the place of you. You are the light of my life, and if you think a couple dates with a girl I met in Glee Club is going to stop me from caring about you even a little bit, then, Madison McCarthy, you are _WRONG.”_

She smiled at him through watery eyes, tears hovering at the rim of her eyelids, threatening to run what Mason knew from the way it clung to her eyelashes was her non-waterproof mascara.

“Do you really mean it?”

“Of course!” 

“...Okay. Thanks.”

He gently wipes the tears from her eyes with both of his fingers, and she gives him one of those small smiles that makes his heart feel all warm and fuzzy.

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

Madison walks into Glee Club the next day and sees Jane seated on her brother’s lap.

Her first feeling is shock. Her twin was not normally one to engage in that kind of display of affection, aside from with her.

Her second feeling is fury. Pure, unadulterated fury. After that whole conversation she’d had with him last night, he _still_ goes around flaunting his relationship in front of her?

He then whispered something in Jane’s ear that made her look shyly down at the floor, and Madison felt another wave of shocked fury wash over her.

_Unimportant and left alone... **again**._

She tried to brush it off and be happy for her brother. She really did.

But then she saw the way her brother started crossing his legs awkwardly after Jane got up to retrieve her music binder.

_Oh, my God, really?!! In the middle of Glee Club?!! He knows how his body will respond to him doing certain things. Shouldn’t he know better?_

And that’s when she realizes how much she really feels threatened by Jane.

Because he really likes Jane. And Jane can give him everything _she_ can, plus sex (or, at least, kissing and other forms of non-platonic physical affection).

And, even if he said he wouldn’t ever let someone else replace his twin, she knows that he doesn’t need her anymore.

But she needs him. She will always need him. And he can’t sustain two really strong emotional relationships with two people. He doesn’t have the time or the energy. So something has to give.

_...But why does that something need to be **her**? What does Jane have that she doesn’t? _

_...Well, she’s hot. Or, at least **Mason** thinks she is. .._

_So that’s the difference. He s replacing me because I’m not hot._

_...Well...I’ll show him. I’ll make myself look so gosh-darn amazing all the time that he’ll see there’ s really no reason for him to abandon me for Jane because I have everything she has._

_...And then he’ll feel guilty for not realizing that I’m his closest friend and not worth abandoning._

On a better day, she’d realize that trying to make yourself look attractive to get your twin brother to stop spending so much time with his (sort-of) girlfriend isn’t the best of plans. But right now, she’s desperate, and willing to do whatever it takes-no matter how ill- advised or ridiculous or full of unfortunate implications-to hang onto the only real friend she has.

But she commends herself on choking down the volcano of emotions that is threatening to erupt, smile at Mason convincingly enough to convince him nothing is wrong, and calmly take a seat as far away from him and Jane as is physically possible.

_Mason: Are we sort of even now? Madison: Oh, screw it; this is getting way too complicated._

* * *

 

One of the positives about being on the cheer squad is getting interesting fashion tips from the other girls on the team.

So, when she gets home from school, she immediately changes into what, after a lengthy shopping trip, Sidney and Kelly had dubbed her, “I’m-totally-getting-a-date-tonight” outfit- the one that brings out her eyes and fits her snugly but not so-tight-it-looks-like-I’m-desperate, with just a hint of bold accents of color to make her seem a bit more inviting and adventurous.

She’s never worn this outfit before because she hadn’t had any desire to look good for a specific person since she bought it.

But she has a mission. She needs to prove that she’s just as...whatever...as Jane. Just as good, just as pretty, just as worthy of her closest friend’s attention...

She was actually, legitimately being insane right now, and she knew it. But she was so tired of feeling like she was being blown off that she didn’t really, very much care.

The moment she walks into the den and says, “Hey, what’cha up to?” he meets her gaze and his eyes widen to inhuman dimensions.

“...When did you buy _that_?”

“A while ago,” she remarks, cavalierly.

“It...You look great.”

“Thanks!” And she goes back out the way she came, barely hearing him yell, “By the way, I’m doing the _Grapes of Wrath_ essay…That I’m forcing you to proofread later!” behind her.

* * *

 

She finds herself going shopping a lot more. She’d never really spent a lot of her own money on things for herself. She was never really one for material possessions, and most of the time, she just wore her Cheerios uniform and would come home and change immediately into comfy pajamas.

But, obviously, things were a bit different, now.

She manages to get to the mall Friday evening (she tells herself it’s a fitting reward for making it through a day with four tests and a solo Glee performance) and returns with more bags than any average, able-bodied person should feel obligated to carry.

Mason is at some school thing to support some club that Jane is in. She can’t wait to see his reaction when he comes home.

When he _does_ come home, she is expertly sprawled on the sofa, clad in new leopard-print pajamas with shorts that show off her toned legs and a short-sleeve top that hangs on her arms in a way that accents her musculature.

Mason obviously expects her to be in her room, and when he, laughing, brings Jane in through the front door and sees her, he instantly stops mid-chuckle and visibly swallows.

“Uh, hi...”

 “Hey, Mas. How are you doing?”

Mason’s eyes are darting everywhere around the room-a behavior somehow unnoticed by Jane-as he awkwardly replies in a strained voice, “Good. Well. Fine. We had fun. Right Jane?”

“Yeah! You, see, the International-” 

“Are you okay?” Madison interrupts, glancing toward Mason, feigning innocence.

He swallows again. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just...allergy season. It really started flaring up on the way back here.”

The awkwardness of the situation goes _entirely_ unnoticed by Jane, who accepts his excuse at face value.

And Madison supposes she has no reason not to.

She prides herself on being able to read her twin’s mood in a way that no one else can.

“Well, I think we’re going to go upstairs so I can show her my collection of-”

_Leave me **again**? I don’t think so._

“Ugh. Could you guys just stay here? _Harry Potter_ ’s on, and I’d rather watch it with other people.”

Mason awkwardly glances at Jane. “I think we’d rather-”

“Pleeeeeaase? I’ve had a really long day, and I could use the company.”

Mason looks like he wants to protest, and Madison cuts him off prematurely with a growled, “Mason...” through gritted teeth.

Mason gives an apologetic glance to Jane before sitting down hesitantly on the recliner next to the sofa. Jane sighs and says, “Yeah, it’s cool. I love _Harry Potter_.”

Mason looks forlornly upstairs, lamenting the loss of a bragging moment over his extensive collection of athlete bobbleheads.

_Madison: **All** the points. Mason: Significantly fewer._

* * *

 

When Madison is listening to music on Saturday morning, Mason asks her a question. She mumbles some sort of affirmative response, not really paying attention. She didn’t realize that the question was, “Hey, is it cool if Jane comes over this afternoon?”

She supposes she did this to herself. It _was_ her fault for not paying attention. But she’s still angry. Heaven forbid Mason would want to hang out with his _own sister_.

Not to mention the thought that, since they’d been doing the relationship dance thing for a while and their parents were currently out running errands, they might start doing... things...while she was still there, which, quite frankly, she found offensive and just plain disrespectful. And gross. But mostly disrespectful.

This was going to be a long day.

_Madison: Not **quite** all the points. Mason: Significantly more than he had before._

* * *

 

Jane is coming over, and he’s excited. But Madison still has that look on her face that she always has whenever he interacts with Jane-the one where she looks like she’s been forced to watch videos of people being burned alive.

Mason finds himself especially wary of her today. The last thing he wants is to ruin his time with his almost-girlfriend.

Madison stands in front of the grand staircase and stares them both down. He and Jane exchange sideways glances infused with equal parts trepidation and annoyance.

“You are _not_ going upstairs. You are staying _right here_ where I can see both of you.”

Mason doesn’t even know how to respond to that. He’s so shocked by this blunt verbal force that all he can do is say, so quietly he almost can’t even hear himself, “We weren’t going to do anything.”

“I don’t care. I don’t trust either of you. And I don’t want mom and dad coming home to find you two engaging in carnal activities.”

Jane sniggers under her breath at the use of the phrase, “carnal activities,” while Mason just rolls his eyes and resigns himself to the fact that he’s not going to win this one.

...Honestly, what was her problem?! He and Jane weren’t even officially dating, yet.

_I know she’s worried about being replaced, but **come on**. This is taking it a bit too far._

He sits down on the couch and Madison immediately takes the space next to him, forcing Jane to sit in the recliner because the sofa is tiny and there isn’t really room for threepeople.

 _Ugh. Couldn’t he just have **one** moment alone with the girl he liked? Madison: Approaching infinity. Mason: Probably in the negatives by now_.

* * *

 

“Do you want to do a duet?”

“Mason, did you _really_ just sing a request for me to sing with you to the tune of “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?”

“Maybe.” 

“Well, in any case, the answer is yes. As long as it’s not ‘Love is an Open Door.’ ”

“Hey! It’s a GREAT song. I know people think _Frozen_ is overrated, but I don’t think they understand just how well-crafted the soundtrack-“

“I already said I’d sing with you. Don’t make me change my mind.”

“Then you’ll have no one to take you out for Thai food on Saturday.”

The look on Jane’s face at such an obvious attempt at flirting is absolutely precious.

“How did you know I like Thai?” she asks, recovering from her surprise astoundingly quickly.

“I do my research.”

 “Oh, really?”

 “However, I’d really prefer to study the test subject in person.”

And, suddenly, there’s Madison, standing in the doorway, giving him an absolutely terrifying death glare so cutting it could probably cleave a steak in two if you put one in her line of vision.

“Uh...except...I just remembered, I can’t do Saturday. I have a family...thing...But we’ll totally do it another night!”

She gives him a half smile, obviously a bit disappointed, but still trying to keep both of their spirits up. “I’ll hold you to that.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Madison leave, off to do God-knows-what.

_If this was going to keep being a thing, Mason didn’t know if he could physically or emotionally handle that._

* * *

 

Lately, Mason had been withdrawing. Probably calling or texting Jane. Whatever. She had long since realized that he was never going to make an effort to spend time with her again.

_So much for their lifelong promise of, “Let’ s never let a stupid relationship get in the way of us okay?”_

And though Madison was having fun with the whole “dressing up to prove a point” thing,it obviously wasn’t working well enough.

There _had_ to be some way to make him understand.  But the only way to make him understand would be for him to feel what _she_ was feeling. And the easiest way to do that would be to get a boyfriend.

...Not that she actually _wanted_ one. And there was no one she was interested in, anyway. She wasn’t going to be in a relationship with someone she didn’t like. And she wasn’t going to _use_ someone, either. That just created a whole new mess of complications.

Besides, she wasn’t heartless. She knew how much using someone could mess them up. ...But, if she got someone to agree to _pretend_ to be in a relationship with her...

There actually _was_ a guy on the football team, who owed her one for helping him pass biology...She probably still had his number...

She flipped through her phone’s contacts and found it: “Jackson Arren.”

She clicked the call icon next to his name and waited for three rings of the phone before a booming, baritone voice picked up and asked, with no small degree of confusion, “Madison?”

“Yeah. Hey, Jackson, remember how you said you’d repay me for the whole biology thing? I need a favor.”

“Sure. What’cha need?”

“I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend.”

“Uh...okay. Is there a particular reason?”

“My brother is blowing me off in favor of his new sort-of girlfriend. I want him to know how that feels.”

“Sounds like you’re jealous,” his voice is teasing, obviously cashing in on what he thought was a punch line to one of Kitty’s incest jokes.

“Over my _brother_?! Ew, gross!!” 

“Okay, chill, dude. I know. What do you need me to do?”

“Well...”


	5. Chapter 5

The next day during lunch break marks Mason’s first meeting with Jane about their duet. 

“I really hope you like this song. I’ve been _dying_ to sing it with someone for real.”

“Okay, what is it?”

“ ‘Something to Believe In’ from _Newsies_.”

“What?”

“It’s based on the newsboys strike, and this song is between the strike leader Jack and a reporter Katherine, who turns out to be the daughter of his greatest rival, even though she’s totally on board, and…”

Jane doesn’t look convinced.

“Just do the song, okay?”

“Okay...”

She listens to a recording a few times to get the gist of it (the song isn’t that hard), but her face doesn’t light up the way he expects it to once she actually hears it.

She still looks skeptical, choosing to side-eye him rather than jump up and down with enthusiasm, but Mason’s sure that once they actually start singing together, she’ll love it.

...At least, he really hoped she would. He had first found this song when he and Madison were thirteen, and since then, it had been their go-to music theatre piece. And he had very early on vowed that his perfect person, the one he would want to be with long-term, was someone with whom he felt as good and comfortable singing this song as he did with Madison.

They start singing, and Mason’s getting into it, but Jane is still holding back because she thinks the song is cheesy, and it’s not really her style, and, suddenly, they get to the bridge and it’s particularly amazing harmony with both characters belting their faces off...

...And it feels completely _wrong_. Jane’s voice, although amazing, isn’t the type of voice that meshes well with his in this style of music. And he can’t explain it, it just feels...

_...Not like it does with Madison..._

Which is fine. It shouldn’t feel like it does with Madison. But when he sings this song with her, his voice feels...free. He leaves every rendition of this song with his twin feeling like he can do anything.

And, for reasons that he doesn’t completely understand, he _doesn’t_ feel that right now. He tells himself that all first rehearsals are rough, that the musical syncing up doesn’t happen until later...

...Except he knows that she’s never going to like the song enough to enjoy working on it. And when something doesn’t vocally work, it doesn’t vocally work.

Jane senses something is off and says, “I just don’t think my vocal style is right for this. I know you had your heart set on this, but I think it’d be better if we did something else.”

Mason finds himself nodding in agreement.

“Well, I have to get to class. But we’ll talk about this later. I’m sure we can figure something out.”

When she briefly touches his shoulder on her way out, he doesn’t even feel it.

* * *

 

_Okay. It’s fine. Just breathe. Calm down._

Mason paced around his room furiously. He was kind of undergoing an emotional crisis.

_So doing your favorite duet with her didn’t work. That doesn’t mean anything._

But...it _did_ mean something. Everyone has that one thing that their perfect person _had_ to do. The one magical “sign” from the universe that _this_ person was going to be the one for you.

_So Jane isn’t your “perfect person.” No one can really have that “perfect person.” No one’s perfect. It doesn’t mean anything. Just because she didn’t do something you like doesn’t mean that you two won’t work out. It doesn’t mean that she means any less to you..._

_...Right?_

He couldn’t help but see it as a bad omen of their relationship. This was his favorite duet, and the fact that Jane couldn’t complete the other half of the thing he had identified with love for so long didn’t seem like the most promising of developments.

That didn’t mean he shouldn’t try, right?

Besides, it was just a high school relationship. It’s not like he was proposing to her. This didn’t have to be the end-all-be-all of girlfriends for him.

He _wanted_ to make things work. But the fact that Jane didn’t fit into the one thing he felt was a must in any romantic relationship he had made him feel like maybe that wasn’t possible.

He’d ask Madison, but she was being weird and controlling as of late. Still worried that she’d be replaced. 

 _As if. Like anyone could take the place of his twin sister_. 

But he knew he had to tread carefully around her.

So he opted to just try to forget about it. He’d first realized he liked Jane when they sang together. Maybe if they could find a good musical fit for both of them, it’d assuage his fears.

* * *

 

Madison came down the stairs, hair down and perfectly coiffed, best pair of skinny jeans, glittering earrings, glamour make-up to rival the models in a Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and a t-shirt for a band she didn’t even like that she’d bought at Goodwill as a paint shirt when she had briefly entertained the idea of being, well, a painter, about a year ago.

Mason looked up from the book he was reading for English class and tilted his head quizzically.

“You hate _The Fray_.” She merely shrugged.

“You’re also dressed up. Why are you dressed up?”

“No reason. Oh, Jackson’s coming over.”

Mason’s eyes narrowed, and he gave her a sidelong glance that suggested he had put two and two together.

“Okay...why?”

 “Turns out he’s surprisingly good at history.”

“I could help you with History.”

“You have a life and an almost-girlfriend. I didn’t want to bother you.” Madison silently congratulated herself for letting this come out of her mouth completely seriously and not even a little bit sarcastic.

Mason simply rolled his eyes and mumbled something unintelligible under his breath.

“What was that?”

 “Nothing,” Mason replied with a rather uncharacteristically noisy exhalation.

Madison smiled to herself. Mason had never really gotten along with Jackson. Not for any particular reason, he just thought that Jackson was too dumb and shallow to be hanging out with his sister.

 _This might be interesting_...Madison thought.

* * *

 

Mason watched discretely over the top of his required reading book as Madison opened the front door almost immediately after hearing the obnoxious door bell that sounded more like a defective alarm clock than a tinkling chime.

“Hi,” she said, with an amount of enthusiasm in her voice that was normally reserved only for the times when she was consuming a piece (or five) of red velvet cake.

“Hey,” Jackson replied. He moved in to hug her, his hands lingering just a little bit _too_ long on Madison’s back for Mason’s comfort.

 _He never **had** liked the guy. _“Would you like something to eat? Drink? Is there any particular place you’d like to work...in particular...?” She gave the football player a nervous smile.

_Madison **never** got shy around **anyone**. **Especially** not particularly empty-headed football players._

“I think we should get right to work. You seem to be finding history as hard to grasp as a hamster with a laser pointer.”

Madison laughs uproariously. “Oh, Jack, you’re so _funny_. And...actually quite right... actually.” She looks down at her feet after catching herself repeating words needlessly for a second time. “Let’s go upstairs,” she finishes sheepishly.

_That wasn’t even that funny. What was Madison **doing**? She could do **so** much better than this guy._

Mason was also going to point out that _cats_ were the ones that had difficulties with laser pointers and that Madison _hated_ hamsters, but before he could open his mouth, they were gone.

_How was this guy good at history, again? ...Maybe he was cheating. ...Or, even worse, maybe he just pretended to be good at it to impress Madison. Was she **seriously** falling for this?_

Mason rolled his eyes.  If she wanted to act like a blind idiot, that was _her_ problem.

* * *

 

Madison steps out of her room with Jackson about two hours later, a dopey grin plastered on her face, and Jackson laughing _far_ too loudly to be believable at something she’d just whispered to him.

“Oh, hey, Mads, do you know where the calculator is?”

“No...I think mom took it with her when she left for work this morning. Don’t you have one on your phone?”

“Mine doesn’t do logarithmic functions.”

“Oh, what do you need?”

“What does it matter? Unless you have an eidetic memory of every logarithmic function in the mathematical universe, there’s no way you can help me.”

“You are aware that, depending on the base and the number in the parenthesis, you might not need a calculator? Like, if it’s something like Log4(16)?”

Last summer, Madison had taken algebra at a community college for duel credit so she could have a lighter course load this year. So, she was ahead of Mason in the math curriculum.

“Yeah, but these numbers don’t match up in a way that works.”

“What are they?”

“Well, I have Log7(2401). Pretty sure that doesn’t work.”

“Yes it does,” Madison says, not unkindly or condescendingly, but still as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

“Really.” 

“It’s four. Seven to the power of four is 2401.” 

Mason eyes her suspiciously. He doesn’t trust her. “You’re just messing with me.”

“Multiply it out.”

He does. It is, indeed 2401. He feels his cheeks getting redder by the second, and he sees a victorious smile slowly creep onto Madison’s face.

“Okay, so what’s six to the power of five?”

“7776.”

He types that one into his phone calculator to save himself time and prevent himself from doing incorrect math. It is, of course, right.

“How did you...?!”

“To make things easier, I memorized every number from one to twenty to the power of ten so I could get through the easy logarithm problems faster.” She shrugs nonchalantly as if it’s the most unimpressive thing ever.

Mason just stares open-mouthed. And he sees Jackson looking at her with a dumbfounded expression that slowly gives way to a look of pure adoration.

Mason immediately gets suspicious. _Jackson has never been impressed with intelligence before..._

He remembered last year, around the time when Jackson was being tutored in biology by his sister, there was another girl-Jackson’s partner for some project in English class-who was at the top of her class. She had never gotten below a 97 on any test in any subject, and knew the answers to students’ questions more often than any of her teachers. She had developed a gigantic crush on Jackson because of his skill as a football player and had decided to tell him, but he wasn’t interested. She’d thought it was because they were in different social circles, but Jackson had assured her he really didn’t care about that. Instead, he said he’d never be able to date someone who made him feel so stupid all the time. But he still thought she was really cool, and if she wanted to continue playing World of Warcraft with him as friends, he was totally down. (Oddly enough, they became best friends, and she was now dating the captain of the debate team.)

_Jackson’ s not interested in intelligent women, so why was he pursuing Madison now...?_

_...He must want something. He must have some ulterior motive. But what?_

_..._ Maybe he had changed his mind?

No. He was not to be trusted. Mason had never had a great feeling about Jackson, and he wanted to believe that there was a reason for that.

Besides, his sister was too smart and too pretty and too talented for him, anyway.

But if there was anything he’d learned in the past few weeks, it was that he couldn’t stop Madison from feeling or thinking whatever it was she was feeling or thinking. She was a very driven young woman, which often made her extremely stubborn.

So he decided to keep an eye on Jackson. For his sister’s sake.


	6. Chapter 6

“Hey, I’m going out!” Madison called the following Friday. She came rushing down the stairs, clad in the only green shirt she had in her closet.

Mason looked at her curiously, then said, with no small degree of consternation, “You _hate_ green.”

“Yeah. But Jackson doesn’t.” This remark was accompanied by a dreamy smile and a slightly mischievous look in her eyes.

“Madison...you know you don’t have to change yourself for a guy, right?”

“Oh, of course not!! I’d never _dream_ of doing that. And I certainly don’t plan on it. But I hardly think wearing someone’s favorite color because they like it counts as _changing_ myself. It’s not like my hatred of green is a fundamental part of my personality.”

“O...kay.” 

“I’d have thought you’d be happy! Besides, I thought you had plans with Jane tonight.” _Oh...right_.

Their Glee duet wasn’t due until a week later, and they’d agreed to meet for dinner and then brainstorm song ideas. But Jackson had been over every day this week to help Madison with her history homework and had been soaking up so much of Madison’s time that Mason never saw either of them once school was out. Mason had been so preoccupied trying to figure out Jackson’s true intentions during the past few days that he’d completely forgotten.

He didn’t want to think about the implications of forgetting about a date with the girl he supposedly liked.

 _Hey, his sister was important to him! He didn’t want to see her heart get broken_.

 He watched as she practically waltzed out the door, and he couldn’t help but feel a sinking feeling in his stomach.

* * *

 

Madison got home a few hours later. She was kind of dreading this part, but if she wanted to give her brother a taste of his own medicine, she needed to be convincing.

When she was sure Mason was watching through the window in the den, she leaned toward Jackson and said, “Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

“Yeah. It’s just like having a part in a show. I always wondered what it was like to be an actor. Besides, there’s a really cute girl in my chemistry class I’m kind of into, and if she thinks I’m unavailable, maybe she’ll get jealous.”

“Is it Liz?” 

Jackson blinked in surprise. “Uh, yeah. Do you have any idea how high her kill score is onHalo? It’s, like, _impossibly_ high.” 

Madison chuckled. “Well, here’s hoping for the best.”

“Here goes nothing,” Jackson replied with a smile.

He leaned in, and kissed Madison. It was a pretty chaste kiss, nothing to write home about, but, considering that Madison had little dating experience and didn’t really believe in extreme physical intimacy unless you were genuinely attracted to the person with whom you were engaged in said physical intimacy, that was just fine.

All of a sudden, Mason stood up angrily from his spot on the couch next to Jane and stormed to the door.

Madison and Jackson were just breaking apart when Mason threw open the door with a deafening “Bang!”

“Okay, that’s enough!” 

Madison looked slightly startled. “…Mason?”

_She had **not** been expecting that impulsive of a reaction._

He poked Jackson in the chest. “ _You_ are quite obviously using my sister for some nefarious purpose, and I want to know what it is?!”

Jackson simply looked confused.

 “ ‘Nefarious’ means evil or sneaky,” Madison whispered to the football player.

“Dude, I promise I’m not doing anything bad.”

“And why should I believe you?! You’ve never shown any interest in her before. And you’ve been acting all gaga over her being smart when you turned down Emily for that exact reason last year.”

By this point, Jane had come to the door to see what was the matter, and when she saw the furious expression on Mason’s face and the equally bewildered one on Jackson’s, she gently tugged on Mason’s sleeve and whispered that she should probably head home to get some sleep. Mason didn’t even look like he registered her words at all.

“Look, Mason, dude, it’s totally differe-“

“I don’t care. No one, and I mean NO ONE dates my sister without gaining MY approval first!! Because she is my _twin_ and one of the most important people in my life. And I don’t trust you.”

“You’ve always had beef with me. Ever since Mads started tutoring me in biology last year. I’ve never done anything to hurt her. And I’d never do anything to hurt her. She’s cool. I like her. And I’m sorry if you’re, like, weirdly jealous.”

“Get. Out. Now.” Mason pointed to Jackson’s car threateningly. Madison actually felt slightly terrified.

Jackson threw Madison an apologetic glance and walked back to his car with a shrug. “I’ll see you Monday?”

Madison nodded.

_All I wanted was for Mason to know how it felt to be ignored. I never meant for **this** to happen. There was absolutely **no** excuse for him to treat Jackson like that. And even if I’m not romantically interested in him, he’s cool. I don’t mind being around him. And he’s one of the few friends I have._

_...I hope Jackson is all right._

_...Maybe this was a bad idea._

Too tired to think about what all of this meant or how to fix it, Madison decided to shower and get some sleep.

She’d deal with it in the morning.

* * *

 

 _Ugh_. **_Jackson_**.

Why did _he_ have to be the one dating his sister?

Or trying to, anyway.

Mason couldn’t really pinpoint why he didn’t trust Jackson. The guy seemed too dumb to formulate some sort of evil plan or even act dishonestly at all.

But one thing was for sure: he was _not_ worthy of taking up all of Madison’s time.

_He called her “Mads?!” REALLY?!!!_

_Only **he** was allowed to call her that._

He hadn’t seen her at all this week. And every time they’d sat next to each other in Glee club, all she’d do was talk about Jackson-something he said or some _brilliant insight_ he’d had into how to approach her history homework.

...Maybe Jackson was actually good at history. But Mason doubted it. It seemed more like Cady from _Mean Girls_ letting herself be tutored in calculus by the mathematically incompetent Aaron Samuels in order to get close to him.

Who did this guy think he was? His sister was _his best friend_. And it didn’t matter that he was sort-of-kind-of with Jane now. He _totally_ would have helped her with her history homework.

He was _not_ about to be completely replaced by some random person that his sister didn’t even know.

...Which was exactly how Madison felt about his relationship with Jane, wasn’t it?

Granted, Madison was being a lot more of a control freak than she had any right to be. But he shouldn’t have blown up at Jackson. And he could kind of understand where Madison was coming from.

When Madison slogs down to the kitchen to fix herself waffles for breakfast (like she always did on Saturday), Mason is already waiting at the table, having put together a fruit salad of all her favorite fruits.

He pushes the last of the overly-expensive maple syrup that their aunt had given the family when she was over for Christmas toward his sister, along with the fruit salad and a plate of freshly-baked waffles.

“What’s all this?”

 “A peace offering. I want to have just an ‘us’ day. I think we both need it.”

An absolutely radiant smile blooms across Madison’s face, one that lights up Mason’s heart and makes him smile hugely, too.

“I think that’s a great idea.” 

“I’m sorry that I blew up at you last night.”

“You didn’t hurt me, and I texted Jackson before I came down, apologizing for everything, saying that you meant well and that I never meant for him to get hurt in all of this. He said he’s fine and that he found it more amusing than anything else.”

She looked extremely relieved when she said that.

 _I guess she really does care about him_.

That made him feel even more guilty.

He shook his head. Today was about him and Madison. Not about what happened last night. “So...what do you want to do?”

* * *

 

Madison couldn’t agree more that she and her twin needed a day for just the two of them. Their parents were gone on one of their many job conferences and had been all week. So this day was just going to be about the two of them. They had the house completely to themselves.

She had texted Jackson, though. She wanted to make sure he was all right. He was her friend, and she _did_ care about him, even if she didn’t want to date him.

_-Hey, are you all right? I know I just wanted to make my brother see my side of things, but I never expected that he’d get so angry. I’m sorry. I never wanted you to be hurt._

_-Hey, it’s cool. I’m fine. Takes more than that to scare me. Don’t worry about it. Seriously. Thanks._

_-If you don’t want to do this anymore, it’s fine. I understand._

_-I ran into Liz while working out at the gym this morning. She seemed kind of pissed off, especially when your name came up. I think my plan to make her jealous is working. And I kind of like screwing around with everyone by making them think we’re dating. If you’re still in, I am._

_-I just don’t want another repeat of last night._

_-We can be more careful. And, honestly, if your brother is going to threaten me, that’s not your fault._

_-If you’re sure._

_-I’m positive. I thought it was kind of funny._

_-Okay. See you Monday?_

_-Yup._

Thank God for that.  She and Mason were currently on the couch with about twenty pillows, watching theAngela Lansbury/George Hearn version of _Sweeney Todd_ over cheddar popcorn. “By the Sea,” had just finished, when Madison decided to bring up something that hadbeen bothering her.

“Mason?”

“Hmm?”

“What you did last night...was that how I was with you and Jane?”

“No. I mean, sort of, but you weren’t nearly that bad...I mean, okay, sometimes you are, but, for the most part, no you’re pretty okay, to a certain extent.”

“You could just say ‘yes.’ ”

“Yeah, but it’s not entirely true. There was no excuse for me speaking to Jackson like that last night. You were never that openly hostile toward Jane. And you certainly never accused her the way I accused Jackson.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I just...I understand where you’re coming from. And I apologize if _I_ ever made you feel the way I felt last night.”

“Apology accepted.”

_Well, that was a load off her chest. It looked like her plan had worked. Maybe he’d back off of Jane a little bit, now..._

The movie finished, and Mason had requested that they play Scrabble. Madison had played the word “azure,” landing the ‘z’ on a triple letter score.

“So, that’s...thirty-four points.”

“No it’s not.”

“Yes, it is. I added it up right here, with written-down numbers, just in case you wanted to check my math.”

Mason gets an impish grin on his face that makes Madison’s stomach turn because she knows he’s planning something ridiculous.

“Not if there’s no ‘z.’ ” And he picks the z off the board, gets up, and sprints away from the table.

“Mason!!” Madison tries to sound angry and threatening, but she finds it more comical than anything else.

She chases him through the house-upstairs, through the home gym, back downstairs, intoand out of their parents’ master bedroom before she finally corners him in the laundry room.

“Hand it over, Mason.”

“Nope.”

“All right, you asked for it.” And she dives downward, reaching for the spot on the back of his ankle that, for some reason, is extremely ticklish. He drops the Scrabble tile almost immediately. She picks it up from the floor, but before she can scramble back up, Mason’s arms close around her and pick her up.

“Mason!” She shrieks with a laugh, “Let me _go_!!”

“You’re winning. I don’t think so.”

And as Madison finally thinks she’s about to break free, Mason’s arms encircle her waist; he spins her around to face one of the washing machines, and Madison soon fights back less and less, realizing that the best way to win this is to wait until he gets bored of restraining her.

She stills her movements, and Mason’s arms tighten around her waist in an extra attempt to keep her from running away, just in case she’s using this lapse in their fighting to concoct some devious plan.

Everything suddenly goes silent, and she feels a strange tingling in her lower abdomen.

Something shifts in the air between them, and Madison closes her eyes and tilts her head down, unsure of what’s going on. She hears Mason breathing uncharacteristically heavily behind her and feels him inch closer, ever-so-slightly.

She’s not even sure he’s aware he’s doing it.

She tries to turn around to look at him, and he, surprisingly, lets her. She’s still backed against the washing machine, but, due to the extremely concentrated, unfathomable expression in Mason’s eyes, even if she had a clear path to the door, she’d still be frozen in place, anyway.

She has _no_ idea what’s going on, and she’s pretty sure he doesn’t either, so she pokes his chest and says, “Well, I think that’s enough of _that_. God, you are _such_ a sore loser. We still have, like, four rounds left. You don’t even know if I’m going to win.”

“Heh heh, yeah.” His laugh is _the_ most awkward thing in the world. The two of them burst out into uproarious nervous laughter, and walk back into the kitchen.

Madison deposits the tile back on the board, and they finish the rest of the game in silence.

Madison wins by eighty points. Which she would normally take as an excuse to gloat obnoxiously for the rest of the day, but the inexplicable sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach prevents her from doing anything at all.

* * *

 

_What the Hell!!? What the ACTUAL Hell??!!! What was **THAT??!!**_

Why were they both so nervous? Why was what just happened so awkward?!

It’s not like physical affection or play fighting was a new thing to them. They’d been doing it since they were two years old!

So what was different now!!??

 _I have no idea_...

It was almost like...

No. It wasn’t like that. It kind of felt like that, but only because of societal conditioning about certain types of relationship patterns.

It was _not_ like that. At all. _Period_.

There had been so many jokes made at their expense. This was simply one of those times when they had realized how others might, possibly, conceivably interpret their relationship as something more than familial.

That was all it was.  There was no reason to freak out about this.

It was nothing.


	7. Chapter 7

Madison walked into Glee club Monday afternoon, and already saw Mason and Jane there, getting ready to talk over their duet some more.

She immediately felt awkward. She didn’t want to intrude.

Mason leaned over to whisper something to Jane, and Madison felt a wave of annoyance wash over her.

_There is **literally** no one else here. And Mason tells ME everything, anyway. What’s with the secrecy?_

_Okay. Breathe, Madison. You guys worked through this. He’s going to back off. You know that you were out of line before. Just turn around, get a drink of water, and wait for other people to get here. Give them some privacy_.

She fully intended on doing that. She really did.

It’s just that, out of force of habit, she pulls up a random Buzzfeed article on her phone and walks into the choir room, loudly saying, “Oh, my God, Mason, have you seen this article? It’s freaking _hilarious_.”

She feels bad for a split second. Then she sees the disappointed look on both of their faces, especially Jane’s, and, suddenly, she can’t bring herself to feel terribly guilty.

Then she feels guilty for not feeling guilty. She wants her brother to be happy. And Jane makes him happy.

At least the article actually _does_ turn out to be hilarious. Something about “demon cats” in ridiculous poses. And Mason, obviously rather grudgingly, finds it hilarious, too.

Jane, however, does not like cats. And she simply rolls her eyes and starts organizing her music.

Madison tries not to feel proud that Mason pretty soon forgets about what he was doing with Jane and starts talking to her.

She promises herself that this will be the _absolute_ last time she gets in the way of them.

* * *

 

Mason tries to accept his sister and Jackson.

He tries not to get angry over him offering to walk Madison to history when his next class is at the other end of the building.

He tries to forget that walking his sister to class is _Mason’ s_ job. 

 _It’s not your “job.” You don’t own her. She knows how you feel about being replaced. She_ _promised she’d back off, so you should, too._...

Except, earlier, in the choir room, she _didn’t_ back off. She interrupted. _Again_.

But it wasn’t her usual angry interruptions. She wasn’t mean about it. Maybe she really was just oblivious that time.

No. He knew his sister. She was _never_ oblivious. She had always had a great grasp on what was going on.

Even when the rumors had barely started about the two of them being a couple, Madison remarked that she had known about people’s suspicions for a long while. She just didn’t care. She knew it wasn’t true, and he knew it wasn’t true, and they were happy with their friendship, so what did it matter? And she assumed that he knew what people thought, too.

...Except he didn’t. He was often the last to know.

...He wondered if Jane knew what was going on the way that Madison did.

 _Wow, that’s actually kind of sad. He was now comparing what he knew about his sister to what he knew about his crush_.

...Come to think of it...he...didn’t really _actually_ know all that much about Jane, did he? He knew she was talented. And cute. And nice. But he knew nothing about her hopes, or her fears, or even what her favorite color was.

...He should probably change that.

Especially before he asked her to be his _full_ girlfriend. He knew she was ready for him to ask her to be exclusive. He knew that’s what she wanted. But Mason had always been careful in relationships. His parents were never around, and that made it kind of hard to rely on people. He wanted to make absolutely sure that this was what was best for both him and Jane before he made things official.

That wasn’t cowardly, was it? That was perfectly reasonable.

* * *

 

Madison came downstairs to dinner, planning on showing Mason the new dress she’d bought yesterday at the thrift store. She and Jackson had gone on a break from a study session together for their Spanish test after she’d mentioned she wanted a new dress, and then they’d gone out for ice cream. She saw Mason on the phone, giggling.

 _Jane_.

She felt _angry_. _Furious_ , even.

He’d literally _just_ spend all day with this girl. Just once, could his life _not_ be about her?

Fine. She was jealous. Not in a creepy way, just in an I-used-to-be-someone’s-number- one-priority-and-now-I’m-not-and-it-makes-me-upset kind of way.

Another overzealous giggle.

_Ugh. He’s never laughed that way at anything **I’ve** said._

_Not...romantically. Just...polite laughing at ridiculous jokes I’ve made that aren’t funny. Like he was doing when he was being overenthusiastic just now._

Just once, instead of always having to take care of Mason and worry about him and making him her number one priority, couldn’t he do the same?

Was it so much to ask that her Most Important Person saw her as _his_ Most Important Person?

Dinner isn’t going to be ready for another twenty minutes, and when Mason mouths “When are we eating?” to Madison, Madison simply shrugs apathetically. Because she knows if she starts to communicate words, she _will_ try to get him off the phone.

And she knows that’s not fair to him.

As she goes upstairs to fold some of her clean laundry, she pretends she doesn’t notice her twin’s concerned expression. And when he asks her what’s wrong once dinner finally arrives, she pretends she doesn’t hear him.

For the rest of the evening, she locks herself in her room to study and doesn’t say anything at all.

* * *

 

Madison decides to bike to school. She’s feeling a little angry about the whole Jane/Mason thing, and she doesn’t want to create any more tension than there already is.

Plus, she has a test in first period. She needs a clear head for that.

After she finally finishes that ridiculous test, she rushes to second period, arriving just in time to see Jane give Mason a kiss good-bye on the cheek.

Something flares up inside her, and she just loses it.

Now outwardly, of course. She promised she’d back off. And she obviously can’t explode in front of all her classmates.

But all of a sudden, the will to do any schoolwork just leaves her. She walks into class,suddenly feeling sick, and goes up to her teacher and asks to be excused to go to the nurse.

The teacher glances over her face and admits that she doesn’t look good before giving her a nurse’s pass.

Madison practically rushes out of the room. She makes it to the nurse, who does a few rudimentary tests before directing her to a bed. She pulls the privacy curtains around her and, for reasons unknown to even herself, folds herself into a fetal position and cries.

She feels a slight vibration in her pocket. 

- _What’s up? Are you okay?_

_-Yeah. Just a little lightheaded. I think my test last period really took a lot out of me._

_-Feel better soon. <3_

_-Hey, Mas?_

_-Yeah?_

_-Are you and Jane officially together?_

_-No. Not yet. I’m still trying to make absolutely sure it’s what we both want. I mean, I like her, but you know how I am about relationships. I’ve never really been terribly interested in **anyone** before, and I have no idea what I’m doing or how to process what I’m feeling._

- _Yes, I do know. Well, I don’t want you to get in trouble for texting in class. If I don’t see you in Glee, I’ll see you at home._

_-Okay. Love you._

_-Love you, too._

Her spirits rise up when she reads that he and Jane aren’t officially a “thing.”

But she thinks of the enraptured expression on Mason’s face when Jane kissed him good-bye, and she starts crying all over again.

_FOR GOD’S SAKE WHY IS SHE **CRYING?**!!??_

_What is WRONG with her?!_

Unbidden, thoughts of Jane and her twin together, as a couple, flood her mind. Them dancing together at prom. Them at Breadstix. Them singing a stellar duet and sealing it with a romantic kiss.

She feels like she’s going to throw up.

Them huddled around a computer screen watching funny Youtube videos and then making inside jokes about them. Them in a corner in Glee club blissfully ignoring everything Ms. Berry and Mr. Hummel are saying and eye-sexing each other instead.

And, suddenly, everything clicks into place.

_No. No, no, no, no, nonononononNONONONONO._

_That’s NOT it. Madison what are you THINKING?!_

_Well, it would make sense, wouldn’t it? The rumors, the irrational anger at Mason having a girlfriend, the never being interested in a guy because having a best friend-slash-twin-brother was enough. The elation at Mason holding off making Jane his official girlfriend. The need to be number one in his life. The awkward moment during Scrabble last Saturday_.

... _Her inability to be happy for her brother for finding a nice girl who made **him** happy. _

Oh, God.

 It didn’t mean anything. 

But she should probably make sure.

She couldn’t believe she was doing this. But she imagined herself on a date with Mason. Going to Breadstix and splitting the Seafood Alfredo Dinner for Two, marathoning _30 Rock_ on the couch, cuddling _non_ -platonically before he walked her up to her room and kissed her against the door, far more intimately and with far more willingness that Jackson had.

And she felt...happy. Excited. Almost drunk. Everything lifted up, and she felt not-so-sick anymore.

This was not good.

This was NOT good.

She supposed she shouldn’t really be surprised.

How was it that she never knew what was going on?

...She _always_ knew what was going on.

...Well...she _had_ known. She just never wanted to admit it to herself.

...And, up until Jane, she, in some perverted, dark corner of her soul thought that maybe there was a chance that Mason knew and felt the same way.

What was _WRONG with her??!!!_

This was wrong on SO many levels.

This _COULD NOT_ be happening.

This was not normal. This was not okay. And if she admitted it, nothing would ever be the same again, and her life would be over.

She looked for another explanation, ANY other explanation. But there wasn’t one. This was the only one that made sense. She was- 

No. NO. _NO_!!!!

She felt herself shaking, almost to the point of convulsion, and her body, without any conscious decision to do so, picked itself up and walked over to the trash can before she threw up inside of it.

She felt sick. And she felt disgusting. And she knew that, unless she accepted what was really going on, she was never going to feel any better because she wouldn’t be able to move past it.

She liked Mason. 

She was still shaking, and suddenly underwent bout of dry heaving over the trashcan.

 She was... _interested_ in Mason. 

Another bout of dry heaving, followed by her legs giving out and collapsing on the floor.

She was totally, completely, _romantically_ , head-over-heels for her twin brother.

_Madison: Negative infinity. Mason: Positive infinity._

 And she felt herself pass out on the floor.


	8. Chapter 8

Madison woke up at home. Apparently, the nurse had found her slumped on the floor, tried to revive her, and couldn’t. She had called an ambulance, which carried her home, where her mom had moved her to the couch to wait until she woke up.

Her mother was pressing a cold washcloth against her forehead, and she was surrounded by a pair of fluffy blankets and about fifteen different stuffed animals when she finally came to.

“Honey!! What happened?!?!?!?!?”

“I just...I had a really hard test this morning. I didn’t sleep much the last few nights because I was studying for it. My body must have just given up because it hadn’t gotten enough sleep.”

“We were worried sick about you!!” 

 _Yeah, well, you’re not the only ones_. 

“Is there anything we can do?”

 “I think I just want to go up to my room and be left alone.”

“Okay. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Sure.”

* * *

 

She heard a knock on her door at about six o’clock. Seemed like Mason was finally home from cheer practice. They’d called a special meeting for the men today. Madison honestly didn’t care why.

“Mads?”

“Go away.”

_She could NOT do this right now._

She hated driving him away. But she didn’t know what else to do. If she wanted to get over this ridiculous crush she had on her _BROTHER,_ she was going to have to not be around him as much as she realistically could.

“Please talk to me. I’m worried about you.”

“I’m fine.”

“You passed out and didn’t wake up for _four hours_. You’re not fine.”

“You’re right. I feel like crap. And I just want to sleep.”

“Are you okay? I know your Spanish test was hard, but I wasn’t aware you were under that much stress.”

“It’s not stress. It’s lack of sleep. My body just shuts down if I don’t get enough rest.”

“I can tell when you’re lying.”

 “I’m not lying. What other explanation do you have?” 

He didn’t.

“Why do you think I sleep in so much on the weekends?”

She could practically _hear_ him mulling it over. He obviously didn’t have a response to that. She knew he knew it made sense.

“Look, I’m exhausted. I think I just need to sleep and not go to school tomorrow. Then I should be fine. You’re making this a way bigger deal than it needs to be.”

“Okay.” 

He left her alone after that.

While her family was downstairs eating, Jackson came over to give her the work she’d missed.

He knocked on her door, announced himself, and came in when she invited him.

“Hey.” 

“Hey, Jackson.” 

“You alright?”

“Yeah. I just...” she felt a fresh wave of tears roll over her, and pretty soon, Jackson was cradling her while she sobbed like a starving baby.

Jackson smoothed her hair awkwardly, not exactly sure of what to do, but wanting to help.

After the weeping had subsided, Madison sniffled and looked up at him. “You didn’t have to come. You’re not actually my boyfriend.”

“Yeah. But I am your friend. And I didn’t want you to get behind. I know how important school is to you.”

She smiled at that. “Thanks.” 

“Anytime.”

 “Listen. I...I don’t think we should pretend to date anymore.”

“Okay. Is there any particular reason why?”

“My brother admitted that he understood why I felt upset about him spending so much time with Jane. So, I got what I wanted. And I realized that I kind of can’t handle doing this anymore because I’m...kind of...into...someone else.”

He looked straight in her eyes, with a slight smile and replied, “Finally figured it out, didn’t you?”

“What?”

“Come on, Madison. Are you honestly going to pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about?”

“So...you know?”

 “I’ve always known. I’m not _quite_ as stupid as I seem to be.”

“And you...you still want to be my friend anyway?”

“The way I see it, there are far worse things in the world than that. You could be a serial killer. Or you could rob banks. Or you could be Hitler. Having an embarrassing crush isn’t really that big of a deal.”

“I think your priorities are a bit skewed.”

“Probably. But you’re my friend, and I care about you.”

There was a brief pause where Madison hugged him before he continued, “But, if we’re not going to pretend-date anymore, I need to tell Liz. I need to come up with a believable story for why we aren’t a “thing” anymore. She told me earlier today that she’d realized, seeing me date someone else, that she really liked me. And that she didn’t expect me to break up with you, but she just thought I should know so that things weren’t any more awkward between us than they needed to be. I really like her. But I need to tell her _something_.”

“What are you going to tell her?”

“Whatever you want me to say.”

“Tell her...tell her that we realized that we both wanted different things in a relationship. And tell her that we really only started dating because you wanted to move on from her- because you didn’t think she’d ever like you-and I wanted my mom to get off my back about me finding a boyfriend.”

“Sounds good.”

“Jackson?”

“Yeah?”

 “What am I going to do?”

“I’m afraid I can’t help you at ALL. But I think you should talk to someone. A counselor, maybe. Not the one at school. One who isn’t connected to what’s going on in any way. Or maybe even Mason.”

“You _CAN’T_ be serious.”

 “I know him. He really cares about you. I don’t think he’ll be as put off by it as you think he will.”

“I appreciate your confidence in that, but...I don’t think that’s an option. Like, _EVER_.”

“Okay. But I do think you need to talk to someone.”

“I don’t know if I can do that. But I’ll try if things get too crazy for me to deal with.”

“Good. I’m going to leave now. Are you going to be okay?”

“I don’t know. For right now, yes.”

“Okay.”

“And, hey, Jackson...Thank you. For everything.”

“You’re welcome, Madison.”

He tucked her into bed under her pair of fuzzy blankets, turned off the light, closed the door, and walked out.

* * *

 

Mason sees Jackson leave.

_So, she’ll talk to her little boyfriend, but not to ME? Is she trying to prove something?  I thought we’d moved past that. ..No, that’s not it. That can’t be it._

_What did I DO?_

Mason felt furious. How was he supposed to help his sister-slash-best-friend if she wouldn’t talk to him. Or, even worse, if she trusted some stupid jock more than she trusted _him_?!

He was worried about her. He knew there wasn’t really a logical explanation aside from the one Madison had given, but he knew that there was something more going on.

He may often be the last to know, but he could always tell with Madison.

Often, when they were kids, he’d know when she had strep or the flu even before the doctors did. Sometimes before _Madison_ did.

What was going on?

He decided he wasn’t going to listen to her. She’d never listened to him when he’d told her to stop worrying about him, so he was going to just go up to her room and not leave until she told him what was going on.

“Mads?”

“ _Ugh_. I SAID, go aWAY!!”

“No. I’m staying right here until you tell me what’s going on.”

“Mason...”

“I mean it. I’m not moving. Which will make it kind of hard for you to go to the bathroom. Or get a new blanket. Or food. You’ll have to talk to me at some point.”

He hears the creak of her bed, and she opens the door. She looks like she feels awful. And she really does feel awful.

She merely stares at him, not saying anything. 

“Jackson didn’t stay for very long,” Mason begins awkwardly, desperate for there to be something _other_ than silence.

“No.”

“How are things between you guys?”

Madison looks like she has to seriously think about her answer before responding. “We decided to call it off.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. I hope _I_ wasn’t-“

“No. It had nothing to do with your outburst. We...” she struggled to think of the words to say. “We went on a date on Sunday. As an actual couple. And it was...awkward. Not, like, _good_ awkward. Like, I-can’t-see-this-working-ever awkward. We realized that we just didn’t have enough in common to share that intimate of a relationship. We wanted different things. And, in all seriousness, we...we wanted different people. We were both into someone else, and this was just our way of hiding that.”

“Oh.” Mason feels...oddly relieved. He knows he shouldn’t be happy that his sister just broke up with someone he’d thought she really liked, but...he kind of was. He was... _thrilled_ actually.

_Maybe now she can find someone who’s actually **worthy** of being with her. _

He’d thought about asking her who this other person was. He was _desperately_ curious. Buthe decided not to push his luck. “Well, if you want to talk about it-“ 

“I don’t. Honestly, I’m not all that upset about it. And I would really like to just sleep.”

“Okay. I love you.” 

But Madison was out.

Mason tried to pretend that her breathing pattern wasn’t different than it normally was when she slept. And that she wasn’t doing that thing where she shut her eyes too tight to convince someone she was still asleep when she wasn’t in order to avoid dealing with people.

_Madison: Who even knew any more? Mason: Ditto._

* * *

 

Madison avoided Mason at school all day the next day. She told him that she needed every spare moment to catch up on the work she’d missed the past two days.

He accepted it, but she knew he was aware that she was ignoring him. She didn’t really care. She could _never_ tell him what was really going on.

Why couldn’t it have been _anyone_ else? A nerdy classmate, a gay guy, a teacher, another girl, ANYONE?!

Her life was _literally_ over. 

 _So much for the promising young vocal artist_.

All of the romantic duets they’d done...How could she have ever known they were real? (At least on her end, anyway.)

She just tried to concentrate on her Glee duet assignment with Roderick tomorrow. She could do this. She just had to force herself to get over it.


	9. Chapter 9

After everything his sister has been through this past week, Mason can’t _believe_ Madison is opting to actually perform her duet with Roderick.

But Madison always was stubborn beyond compare.

She bikes to school again. And she sat on the opposite end of the room and chose to work with some kid named Allistair, who Mason was pretty sure was almost-dating Spencer, during second period.

He wants to believe she’s just being an overachiever, but he knows she’s avoiding him. He just can’t figure out _why_.

He thought they’d moved past the whole Jane thing. But maybe they hadn’t.

_In the name of all that is good and beautiful, couldn’t she just learn to **deal** with it?! He was **not** replacing her!!_

Whatever. If she wanted to be a control freak, that was _her_ problem.

She’s nowhere to be seen at lunch, and Mason is afraid that maybe she decided to bail and skip the rest of her classes, but he sees her coming out of the girls’ restroom on his way to Glee. She pretends she needs to go back inside because she forgot something, so he doesn’t really get a good glimpse of her. But he knows it’s her. And the silver high heels with orange flame bursts, which could only be _hers_ clue him into the fact that she must have used lunch to get ready.

Madison didn’t normally dress up for Glee performances, but he supposed she needed to do _something_ to occupy herself in a realistic fashion in order to keep ignoring him.

He was just glad she wasn’t turning into a truant delinquent.

She offers to go first, and he finally gets a look at her.

She’s wearing a new dress-a pink one-shoulder number with a few well-placed ruffles. She has on grey eye shadow and a perfectly curved line of eyeliner on her eyelids, as well as the silver heels that somehow magically go perfectly with the dress. Her hair is placed in an intricate half-up-half-down hairdo, held together be a small clip in the middle with strands of her hair curled elaborately around it.

Mason feels a fluttering sensation in his stomach because, he has to face it, she looks absolutely _breathtaking_.

“Wow,” Jane murmurs next to him.

He has to agree with her.

Madison and Roderick begin their duet, which happens to be “Say Something.”

She sounds _amazing_.

He’s heard her sing thousands of times before, but he can’t take his eyes off of her.

Her voice soars into a stunning upper harmony that actually gives him goosebumps.

(You don’t understand... _no one_ is good enough to give him goosebumps.)

By the end of the performance, he’s openly sobbing in his chair.

A quick glance at Ms. Berry and Mr. Hummel shows him he’s not the only one.

It has been a _long_ time since a performance by _anyone_ has moved him that much.

Mason is so stunned that he performs his duet with Jane to “Beneath Your Beautiful” in a daze, completely on autopilot.

By the end of the class period, Mason is breathing heavily and feels extremely nervous. He looks at Madison, hoping this will make the feeling go away (because she always makes the weird, negative feelings go away), but the feeling only intensifies.

Jane, who is the only other person in the room besides Mason and his twin, comes up to him and touches his arm. “You said you wanted to talk?”

_Oh yeah, right. Today was the day he was going to officially ask her to be his girlfriend._

He looks over at Madison again, trying to pinpoint the source of this weird... _thing_ that had suddenly taken over him, but it doesn’t help.

 Never mind. He’d deal with it later, whatever it was. Right now, he had a mission.

Oddly, he wasn’t nervous. Not like he was the first time he asked her to hang out with him. Not like he’d felt after seeing Madison perform.

He didn’t feel much of anything at all right now, actually.

That’s fine. He was probably just running on adrenaline. He liked Jane. He did, he honestly, _really_ did.

He was sure that asking her to be exclusive and getting a “Yes” would make him happy an d that once they started dating properly that he’d get that feeling back.

“So, Jane, we’ve been kind of, you know, having a thing...”

“Yeah...?”

“So I was wondering if you wanted to make it an offici-“

Madison slams the door to the music cabinet, prompting both of them to break out of their conversation to look up at her.

He’s noticed Madison is shaking. “Madison?” 

“No.” 

“No what?”

“JUST NO!!”

“I don’t understand. Why are you so upset? What’s going on?”

“I know she makes you happy. And if you want to do this, go ahead. You guys can do whatever you want. But _PLEASE_ don’t do it in front of me!!”

_Okay, that was **it**._

“You’ve been weird about this whole thing with Jane from the very beginning. She is a perfectly nice person who happens to like me the way I am. I at least made an effort to accept your relationship, so there is _no_ excuse for you not to accept mine!!”

“I never said I wasn’t accepting of it. I just said I’d prefer you do your couple things _not_ around me.”

“What difference does it make??!!” 

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”

“Try me.”

“I can’t talk about it. I just don’t want you guys being...” She gestured between them awkwardly with one hand before gripping the corner of the cabinet as if she were holding onto a life raft. She looked like she was about to collapse from the weight of some nameless burden, and, even worse, she looked like she was about to cry.

“Madison, why won’t you tell me _what’s going on_?”

“Nothing’s going on. I’m just exhausted. I told you.”

“Then why are you being so bitchy?”

She looked at him like he’d just shot her between the eyes.

_Okay, maybe he shouldn’t have said **that** , specifically. _

“I don’t know why this is so much to ask of you. It’s a fairly simple concept, really.”

“Oh, my God, MADISON. For once in your life, just stop being such a DAMN CONTROL FREAK!!”

“Well, I’m sorry that I can’t emotionally handle seeing you with someone else because I _love_ you!! I mean, why else do you think I pretended to date fucking JACKSON for so long?!!? And I thought that compromising with you would prevent me from being tempted from getting in the way of your relationship-because it would always remind me that I could never _actually_ have the person I want-but OBVIOUSLY I was wrong!! And I’m sorry that _I_ want to be with you so much that it’s literally making me SICK!!!”

It was clear that Madison hadn’t intended for all of this to come out. She looked positively horrified and she looked back and forth between her brother and Jane rapidly, as if she were a frightened zoo animal in a cage.

Then she ran out of the choir room, face red, stifling very obvious tears and covering her mouth tightly with both hands to prevent any noise from escaping. She didn’t even remember to take any of her things for her next class with her.

Did Madison really just say...?

She _loved him?_

As in, _NOT_ in a sibling way?

Mason mulled over her words again, but there really was no other explanation for them. That _had_ to have been what she meant.

And she’d only been going out with Jackson to _prove a point?!_ Because she was jealous? And wanted _him_ to feel how she felt?!

He supposed he should have been upset. Or livid. Or even kind of betrayed for her lying to him.

But instead, he just felt…

Flattered?

And suddenly, he understands. He understands _everything_. And a light bulb goes off in his brain unlike any he’s ever experienced.

His waning affection for Jane, his irrational anger over his sister dating Jackson and the recent awkward tension between them, his lack of outrage over all of the people who had accused them of being an incestuous couple, and the fact that the few things he thought his “perfect person” would have were things that described Madison. The unbidden thoughts that entered his head about how attractive she looked in certain outfits...

The way he’d completely just forgotten about Jane and rushed out of the choir room screaming “Madison!!”

It was Madison. It had always been Madison.  And, however great Jane was, there was never going to be anyone else but Madison.

He loved her. He loved his sister. He was completely, totally, _ridiculously **in love**_ with his twin sister.

Of course, he would be the last to know. He always was.

_Madison: ten-thousand, Mason: Zero_

But, instead of being distressed or angry or anything that he _should_ be feeling, he felt _amazing_.

The person he loved loved him back. That was all that mattered.

And it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Like he had been Atlas, and someone had offered to hold up the world for him.

 Because everything made sense now. And finally admitting to and accepting what he’d known, deep down, all these years, felt like such a relief that he didn’t have room to feel anything negative.

 _So it was more like, Madison: ten-thousand, Mason: ten-thousand_. 

He’d lost track of Madison. And he was willing to bet all of the money in his savings account that she was _not_ going to her next class. He wondered if she was even still on campus.

She couldn’t hide forever. She’d have to talk to him sometime. He couldn’t just let her get away. Not when he’d finally figured everything out.

He heard footsteps behind him. 

“Mason?”

  _Shit...he’d forgotten about Jane_. 

“Look, I know what Madison said might kind of freak you out a little bit, but-“

“I’m not surprised. It makes sense, actually.”

 _Now came the hard part_.

 Mason looked directly into Jane’s eyes and said, hoping she would understand what hemeant so he didn’t have to admit it to her out loud, “I’m sorry, Jane.”

Jane looked perplexed for a brief moment before she took a step backward, her facial features slowly being rewritten with an expression of neutral recognition.

“Are you?”

 “Yes. I don’t think you understand. She...I...”

 “You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Mason,” she answers coolly.

“I’m so sorry.”

 “I don’t hate you, if that’s what you’re worried about.” 

“Are you absolutely sure about that?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know. I’m trying to understand, and I’m trying to accept what’s going on, and I’m trying to be sympathetic, but I just...it’s _really_ hard to do that, because I _don’t_ understand.”

“I know. And it’s unfair of me to expect you to.”

“Do you love her?”

Admitting it to himself was one thing. Admitting it to another person meant that it was all over and that, quite possibly, all Hell was about to break loose.

But he still, with barely any hesitation at all, hoarsely whispered, “Yes.”

“Then you should probably tell her that.” She turned to leave. 

“Jane?”

 “Hmm?”

“This has absolutely nothing to do with you. And it was nothing you did or didn’t do.”

She looked at him like he’d just told her one plus one equaled six. “I know that.”

“Just as long as you do...Also...I know that this might be a lot to ask, but could you please not...tell anyone about...Madison...and me?”

Jane looked like she was about to protest.

“Look, we aren’t hurting anybody. And we won’t be obnoxious about it. And you never have to talk to me again if you don’t want to. But she is...she’s _it_. And I was an idiot for not realizing that before now, and I just...I know it’s not fair to ask you for favors when I’ve been...like this to you. But we’re just two people who want to be together. And I don’t want to live in denial any more.”

Jane looked extremely conflicted. On the one hand, she looked like she thought he had a point; on the other, it went against part of her personal moral code, and she obviously felt like she needed to tell someone so that he and Madison could stop this depraved _thing_ before it started.

“What if you wanted something so much that you didn’t think you’d be able to function or ever be truly happy without it-something that didn’t actively harm another person-and someone told you that they’d do everything in their power to stop you from having it?”

Jane’s features softened almost instantly. Mason remembered that she _did_ know what that felt like. After the whole Warblers fiasco.

After a pause that seemed to last for eternity, Jane closed her eyes, took a deep breath and said, “Okay. I won’t say anything. I promise.”

“Thank you.”

She gave him a sad smile and turned around to walk to her next class (which both of them were no doubt extremely late to by now.)

Mason reaches the door of his math class, which is right next to Madison’s history class and reaches toward the handle before drawing back.

 _He was doing all right in this class_. _He could afford to skip one day._

...Besides, he needed to find his sister.

* * *

 

He found her huddled in the corner of one of the dressing rooms under the auditorium, face buried in her hands, surrounded by all manner of prop blankets and pillows.

It was the first place he looked.

He closed the door gingerly, which made Madison jump up and hurriedly wipe her red, make-up-streaked face.

“Please just don’t.” 

“You haven’t listened to what I have to say yet.”

“I don’t have to.” A beat. “I’m sorry. I had no right to say those things. You should be with Jane.”

“I would rather be here with you.” Madison looked extremely confused and huddled back even further in the corner.

Mason didn’t want to scare her, so he pulled out a chair from one of the dressing tables and sat down in it backwards, leaning on top of the back of it and spreading his legs over both sides.

“How did you know I’d be here?”

“It’s where I would have gone.”

Another pause. “I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about.”

“Yes I do. I just told you that I...with _you_...You’re my _brother_!” And a fresh wave of tears broke as Madison dropped to the floor again with all of the blankets and pillows.

Mason couldn’t bear to see her like this.

He got up from the chair, found a package of make-up wipes by one of the mirrors, took out a couple, and walked over to where Madison was curled on the ground, looking like she was trying to disappear into the floor and never be found again.

He tugged gently on her arm and managed to get her to her feet.

She still wouldn’t look at him.

_Stubborn until the very end._

He tilted her head up to face him (though she refused to look anywhere other than down at the floor) and slowly began wiping the streaks of make-up off her face.

“You don’t need make-up.”

 “You don’t have to try to be nice to me. I know you probably hate me right now.”

“Madison...there is _nothing_ you could ever do that would make me hate you.” 

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

“Look, you are the most important person in my life, okay? That is _never_ going to change. You could start a nuclear holocaust and I wouldn’t care about you any less.”

“That’s ridiculous. You’re ridiculous. This whole thing is fucking ridiculous.”

“Maybe it is. But that doesn’t mean that it’s _bad_.” 

Madison actually made eye contact with him now.

 “What is _that_ supposed to mean?”

“Madison, I broke up with Jane. I mean, technically we were never _actually_ going out, but...the point is that we aren’t together. And we won’t _be_ together.”

“That’s not what I wanted. I don’t want you to give up a good relationship because you think it’ll hurt me.”

“Don’t you _get_ it?! I’m not giving anything up! I don’t _want_ to be with Jane. I want to be with _YOU_ …I love you. And I don’t mean generic, ‘you’re my family and I like being around you’ I love you...I _love_ you.”

Madison looked at him like he’d just sprouted Pegasus wings and a unicorn horn.

“Mason, you don’t love me. You’re just confused.”

 _Okay, he was definitely **not** letting her get away with that one_.

“You’re just convincing yourself that you feel the same way because you don’t want to hurt me. You-“

Mason was having no more of this nonsense. He placed both hands on the side of her face and kissed her.

The final acceptance of everything, and the final release of all of the denial they had both lived so deeply in for most of their lives, the final culmination of doing the one thing they’d both secretly wanted to do for so long was almost too much, and they had to fall back against the wall to keep themselves from collapsing to the floor.

When Mason pulled away, still leaving his hands on her face, Madison was looking at him as if she couldn’t believe he was really there. She looked at him with an expression of pure, unadulterated wonder, with the slightest hint of what Mason thought was the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen.

“Do you believe me _now_?”

Madison gave him a full, wistful, wide-eyed smile and slowly nodded her head yes.

 _Well, Madison speechless. That was new_.

They stood there for a long time, just looking at each other, Mason’s hands not having moved at all.

Madison grasped both of his hands and hers and broke the silence.“How are we going to do this, Mas?”

“I don’t know. But I think we’ll worry about that when we need to. Can’t we just enjoy being together?”

“I’d like that.”

Madison gives him a sly smile.

“I guess this means we’re even now.”

“We were never keeping score.” 

“Yes we were.” 

_Yes, they were._

She understood. She understood everything-about him, about her, about them, about the world around them.

And he loved her.

Regardless of what happened from this point on, that was the only thing that mattered.

“I think we should start a new scoreboard,” he declared.

“Oh?”

“One where we’re on the same team.”

Madison gave him a shy smile- _how had he never fully realized how beautiful her smile was before now_ -and said, “When did you start getting all the good ideas?”

“When I finally realized that I was in love with the most amazing person in the world.”

Madison threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

Anyone in the entire world could walk in, it wouldn’t matter. They could get kicked out of their family, they could lose their spots in Glee, it wouldn’t bother Mason at all.

Because, right now, he felt like he could do anything.

_Madison and Mason: 1. Everyone else: 0._


End file.
